My old root drive Samsung's seem to be having intermittent problems, and thus threatening a failure soon. However, my system (originally built by ARM, RIP) is now several years old and only supports SATA I.

Do the Velociraptors have jumpers to backwards support SATA I, or is only usable for SATA II? I can not find any information in reviews or teh WD data sheets.

I've never had to jumper an SATA II device to work on older controllers. For about 6 months I was using a Raptor 150gb(SATA1) with a 500gb AAKS(SATA2), doing so made the controller(SATA 2 capable) work at only SATA 1 speeds, and both drives still worked. So, it shouldn't be an issue.

My old root drive Samsung's seem to be having intermittent problems, and thus threatening a failure soon. However, my system (originally built by ARM, RIP) is now several years old and only supports SATA I.

Do the Velociraptors have jumpers to backwards support SATA I, or is only usable for SATA II? I can not find any information in reviews or teh WD data sheets.

I've never had to jumper an SATA II device to work on older controllers. For about 6 months I was using a Raptor 150gb(SATA1) with a 500gb AAKS(SATA2), doing so made the controller(SATA 2 capable) work at only SATA 1 speeds, and both drives still worked. So, it shouldn't be an issue.

Some controllers (notably VIA ones) are incapable of operating with SATA/300 drives unless they're jumpered. I find it interesting your controller operated both drives at the slower speed. It should not.

Hmmmm. Indeed, my MB is an ASUS K8VSEDX, which uses VIA for Southbridge. I had to jumper the WD "Green" drive down to 150MB (SATA I), which prompted my question.

I'm still lusting after the VelociRaptor, but am still seeking empirical data that it can be jumpered to SATA I. I guess I'll try to contact WD directly, unless someone here at SPCR (where I truly trust writers' experiences) has the information.

[[edited: I've sent a request through WD official channels. I'll report the result. Interestingly, nowhere on their site could I find any information about the Velociraptor single line of (possibly) jumper pins.]]

Last edited by tragus on Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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